Music / British jazz
Review: Tim Richards’ Hextet, Hen and Chicken
Whenever pianist Tim Richards’ returns to Bristol he faces big expectations – he lived in in the city back in the early eighties when his powerhouse band Spirit Level didn’t just shake up the local scene, it helped give British jazz an assertive identity that made them national heroes. The band lasted some twenty years but nearly the same time has passed since they disbanded so it would hardly have been surprising if things had changed. Hunched diffidently at his piano, back to the audience, it seemed Richards was content to let the music – mostly composed by him – do the talking, with opener Telegraph Hill an easy rolling introduction.
The arrangement was based on a classic piano chords/bassline/drum groove foundation over which saxophonist Ed Jones laid an elegant solo, the first of many. Richards was equally well served in the next number, the filmic Lucid Dreaming, the complexities of which relied on fine ensemble playing, and the drifting Miles-like trumpet of Dick Pearce shone out of Spirit Walking. But a 6-piece line-up is a difficult beast and while Richards’ music kept a tight compositional grip on things it often felt that he’d left himself out of the equation, leaving him vamping two-handed chords that squeezed vibes player Ralph Wyld out of the mix somewhat. It was a shame, as the pianist had a nice touch, best revealed on a superb duo with Pearce for the Coltrane tune Resolution and in Wyld’s Storebaeltsbroen.
The latter number seemed to release the whole band to have more fun, with bassist Dominic Howells and drummer Peter Ibbotson finding a more organic repartee and Richards giving a playful lightness to his solo. If there was to be just a hint of the powerhouse Spirit Level legacy it came in Howles’ enjoyable boogaloo Ease Up, with Jones and Pearce taking snappy liberties and the Latin-inflected rhythm locking together perfectly.
is needed now More than ever
It was clear, however, that time has changed things – as indeed it should – and if Tim Richards music has matured from those early renegade days it has certainly gained compositional sophistication in the process.
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